10KLF

Rose Presents, one of the principal partners in the 10,000 Lakes Festival, announced today that 10KLF would be on official hiatus until further notice. Unfortunately, 10KLF could not grow to financial success.

Anybody hoping for last year’s incredible lineup that featured Tom Petty and Steve Winwood playing on the same day and also sharing the stage for a few tunes was bound to be disappointed with this year’s lineup. Day 1 of the Outside Lands seemed a little small for a festival, but that may have been because there were so many stages with up to five bands performing at once, sometimes in different areas of Golden Gate Park. Then again when Pearl Jam began its final set of the night.

Quote of the day, heard while in the audience for the last few minutes of an enjoyable-but-forgettable set by Tea Leaf Green:

"They all died at 27 full of drugs and insane, so I made a conscious decision to make my role models change."

One landmark gig at this year's 10KLF was Everyone Orchestra – a staple of this festival, playing their fifth consecutive year.  EO is an ever-changing super-group of musicians collected by conductor Matt Butler to jam on extended guided improvisations.  Using a dry erase board, B

I started day two of 10K in utter relaxation, dozing late into the morning through a minute of light rain on the tent.  It was a music festival, after all, and the idyll didn't last long; the air was soon full of air horns and people yelling "Butt Sca-ratcherrrr!" (ah, the sounds of morning).  Overall, though, listening to the murmur of campers at Northwoods had a magical quality, a constant lone hand drummer in the distance, magical woodsy acoustics.  The morning was sunnier but still mostly overcast as I headed out to The Barn to catch Akron/Family<

For years, my friends have been telling me of a magical place: a music festival at a permanent facility with shaded campgrounds, flushing toilets, manageably small but big enough to rope in major talent, populated with friendly people.  This year, I finally made it out to this legendary event as a correspondent for GratefulWeb.com, and am happy to report that the rumors are true.  10,000 Lakes Music Festival r

As I went off to bed Friday night, the weather turned very chilly and was beginning to settle in my head, foreshadowing a good  head cold.  And later in the night, our fellow campers had a fire pit going, whose some for some reason just that night seemed to sweep underneath our tent fly and fill my sinuses. I woke up achy and feeling like crap. As I stumbled toward my morning coffee, the sky was cloudy and threatened to rain. I talked with one of the recycling people and he said that though rain wasn't forecast, it wouldn't get warm, just up to the late 60s by dinner time.

After last night's rain, it dawned sunny and warm with a few clouds. The humidity was greatly reduced, too, promising to be a great day for music.

I started off my musical day with two exceptional bands that weren’t on the program. Enchanted Ape and Mountain Standard Time played acoustic sets in the VIP Chill Tent. Enchanted Ape had a guest guitarist join them, a performer who had played with frontman Chris Obrien years before and who added some really nice vocal backups. The regular guitarist will come in Friday just before Enchanted Ape’s slot that day. Chris also added a tenor sax player to this acoustic set.

The seventh annual 10,000 Lakes Festival opened yesterday to a large crowd that seemed small. This was partly due to the fact that the Main Stage had two acts running against the Saloon Stage (called the Vitamin Water Syn Saloon Stage this year). The Field Stage and Barn Stages were dark until 11:30 pm. This meant that the focus of last night’s audience was on the Main Stage acts: Gomez and Widespread Panic. Unfortunately, this drew some of the crowd away from the acts up the hill at the Saloon.